FOREWORDWelcome to my nature mastery guide.The purpose of this guide is to show you how to do this in around half the time and in the easiest way possible.Allow me to bring you up to speed minus several months’ worth of frustration and toil.This guide is designed for both new players and veteran players and should (hopefully) be a valuable resource for anyone interested in playing a nature/x petmancer.Enjoy. 🙂Abbreviations/Relevant Terms:TQ – Titan QuestIT – Immortal Throne (TQ’s official expansion)AE – Anniversary Edition (the latest major TQ official modification)mod/s – modification/s, usually player generated. A lot of the more interesting ones have an official thread in these forumsInt – intelligenceDex – dexteritypot – potionproc – programming random occurence, the chance of a special ability activatingrespec – visiting the Mystic NPC to re-assign skillpointsaggro – aggression, “to draw aggro” would mean to draw the aggression of enemy monstersHP – health points/healthDPS – damage per secondAoE – area of effecttoon – your charactertwink – the act of giving your toon powerful pre-farmed gear, can also be used to refer to a toon with with pre-farmed gearaffix – enchantments on itemscompletion bonus – the random enchantment generated after you complete a relic, charm or artifact.standard completion bonus – completing a relic/charm already socket-ed in an item causes it to generate the standard completion bonus, which is a fixed bonus (as of November 2016, the standard completion bonus feature is still missing from TQ:AE)Table of Contents (Use this to ctrl-F your way around the guide)I. Nature Pros and ConsII. StatsIII. Gameplay (includes Pre-AE and Post-AE builds)IV. Items and where to find themVI. Relevant DataVII. MulticlassingVIII. Frequently Asked QuestionsIX. CreditsI. Nature Pros and ConsNature is the game’s default pet-user mastery. It is the only mastery that relies almost exclusively on pets to defeat enemy monsters. Any nature/x combination can be played as a petmancer, although each of the other masteries has something different to offer.Pros-Solid gameplay, you have several options for offense, defense, crowd control and buffing/debuffing-High single target/multi-target DPS-Great survivability with skills like Regrowth and Heart of Oak-Core gear can be bought from NPC stores-Playable as a petmancer within minutes of character creationCons-Needs to shop for items-Some nature skills have really long cooldowns-Lacks a killer AoE nuke-Pets won’t defend you if you lag in multiplayerII. StatsThere are two basic stat routes in TQ – the Str route (for melee types) and the Int route (for casters). Builds using bows/spears usually also pick the Str route.Either stat route works for nature but pet builds can be very mana-intensive so picking the Int route (most points in Int, a few in Dex) helps offset high mana consumption and allows you to use staves with pet affixes.An excellent guide on proper stat point distribution, made by Poinas, can be found here. Use the guide/google if you want specific item requirement values.The general idea is this:Int – enough points to get to 560+ by legendary for staff requirements if you pick the Int route, zero if you decide to go melee/rangedDex – enough points to get to 170+ by legendary for Int gear, 380+ if you want to use very rare Dex gear (like Stonebinder’s Cuffs), 400+ if you want to use the best bows/spearsStr – zero for casters, enough to get to 140+ by legendary if you want to use very rare Dex gear (like Stonebinder’s Cuffs), enough to get 500+ of you pick the Str route and wish to use the best weapons/armorDon’t forget that you get bonus stats from different quests once per difficulty. You can also increase your stats easily through gear, accessories, relics, charms and artifacts.III. GameplayThere are basically two builds you should aim for (one if you play the AE version) though feel free to tweak them to suit your personal tastes. One build is ideal pre-Wusao while the other is for the rest of the game. Regardless of any changes you make, I recommend not getting Plague until after you reach level 25.Build 1: Pre-Wusao, Level 1-29PlaystyleLet your pets defeat everything while you heal and loot. Your pets should have no trouble handling anything except bosses and against these just use scrolls. A scroll of Unbroken Fortitude works well against the gorgons and Alastor while a scroll of the Harpy Witches works well against bosses like the minotaur.Since your character won’t be doing a lot of fighting take the time to familiarize yourself with enemy mobs and their behavior. Of note, learn to identify which mobs prefer to attack you instead your pets. Stay mobile. Study bosses and their behavior/attack patterns. Bosses in TQ have very specific strengths and weaknesses and it is very easy to fight a boss the wrong way and die.Assemble a complete set of “Beastmaster’s”/”Spiritcaller’s” affix gear as soon as possible – the whole set includes a staff, pendant and two rings. You can buy these from any merchant in the game. Pick elemental damage over physical/vitality damage, you can switch to a damage type more appropriate for your build once you start buying “Summoner’s” or better affixes.

The PremiseEvery build has a premise in my view, a raison d’etre, a niche, a purpose, a set of characteristics which define it. So what defines the Bone Charmer? There are many ways to play this build. With Monster Lure as a distraction, it could even be viable for Poinas’ Ternion and …of Harrowing build. However, I like the Bown Charmer style. The name is an awful pun but it reflects two central characteristics of the build:1) It uses a bow mostly, although not exclusively. It is also a spear melee toon when conditions dictate. And…2) It owns. Everything.

And here is Ilse, one of my visually neatest and most understated toons. Any toon this simple-looking is bound to play equally simply.What the Masteries provideNow that we have the premise of a bow/spear hybrid established, it’s time to discover what each mastery adds to the class. I like to differentiate masteries as Primary and Secondary, depending on what they add to the build. A Thane who uses a staff has Storm as primary, a Thane who dual wields has Warfare as primary. As our Bown Charmer alternates between a spear and bow, and never uses a staff or Ternion, it is obvious that Hunting is the primary, with Spirit as secondary.Hunting is arguably the game’s most self-sufficient primary mastery. With a piercing weapon, Art of the Hunt, Study Prey and Call of the Hunt, it is covered offensively – no further damage boosts are needed. But its defensive characteristics are also well catered for. Wood Lore provides a huge DA boost, Herbal Remedy gives lashings of critical Poison resistance and the Monster Lure offers a tremendous albeit static pet which holds aggro against anything.So what does Hunting not get – and which Spirit can provide? The list is short but very, very sweet:1) Energy. With no boost to the blue bar and several energy-hungry skills, Hunters can go through energy pots like addicts. Spirit mitigates that, not only by providing more base energy but by the game’s best energy-regen skill, Dark Covenant.2) Damage mitigation. Archers are phenomenal at range, when they can pepper hapless foes before they get into melee range. But a surrounded archer is a toon in crisis. Spirit Deathchill aura not only provides great slowing, but Ravages of Time also mitigates both physical and piercing damage.3) Help with Undeads. They’re the most common monster type in the game, you can’t leech life from them and they’re generally quite painful. There are several bosses as well (Undead Typhon, Dragon Liche, Charon, Toxeus) who are Undeads. Spirit Ward/Bane provides a powerful tool to make fights against Undeads much easier.4) A traveling pet. Monster Lure is very handy but you don’t want to be casting it all the time. Spirit gives you the Liche King, the game’s best pet by a country mile. Not only is this ghastly wraith a significant damage dealer in his own right, he also debuffs enemies, saving you from casting Study Prey constantly.5) Help with Attack Damage Converted to Health. This is a necessity for almost all toons, especially in Legendary. The Necrosis synergy of Deathchill makes it possible to leech life from Undeads, Constructs, even Traps!6) Boss help. Every toon needs this and Spirit plugs the hole by giving you the Outsider. For one measly point, you get a temporary companion who can shred even the toughest Legendary bosses.7) Skill point economy. This is an oft-overlooked factor, but any time you can have a modest secondary mastery which requires not many precious skill points, you are saving points for your killer primary mastery skills. The build becomes optimised quicker and there is less need for +skills items.The Sweet SpotMany builds have a sweet spot, that magical synergy which propels the build onto a whole new level. Think of the Assassin’s Traps boosted by the flat damage bonus of everything in Battle Standard’s radius. The Bown Charmer’s sweet spot is a doozy. Hunting’s Take Down skill is usually ignored, even by spear Hunters. While a single point in it is useful to serve as a rush skill and close the gap to ranged foes, few will max out the skill. Its +% Health Reduction bonus simply isn’t worth it against trash mob monsters, and bosses have too much health reduction resistance to make it viable. But the Bone Charmer gets Necrosis to nuke boss Vitality resistance, and the Liche King’s Soul Blight special attack to nuke all resistances – including the special boss secondary resistance to health reduction attacks.The result is a single spear hit that lays waste to bosses. Perhaps a short demonstration will say more than a thousand words. And that’s without the Outsider…Bonecharmer vs Hydra:https://www.youtube.com/embed/YQ0z4CbDWhoThe benefits of going hybridSo, Hydra ownage aside, why do we want a hybrid bow/spear toon? Why not just go all bow or all spear? The reasons are very simple:1) Sometimes one or the other is preferable. Nobody likes taking on Normal Typhon in melee range, using a bow and dodging his clumsy ranged attacks and short-range breaths is much easier. Yaoguai is also considerably easier at range. On the other hand, staying at range against the Hydra invites it to use its deadly breaths. So it’s much easier in melee range, where only Poison resistance is required. Dactyls and Lamians are also quite difficult to hit with a bow due to their high Chance to Avoid Projectiles bonuses. So closing to melee range makes the fight easier. The hybrid build gives you the opportunity to choose your range based on the conditions.2) You have enough skill points to specialise in both. The only difference between a bow Bone Charmer and the hybrid Bown Charmer is 12 points in Take Down. That is very doable.

The BuildThe end game build is very simple. This is what you will need by late Legendary: Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 12, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Take Down 12, Art Hunt 12, Find Cover 8, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 6, Call Hunt 8, Exploit 10, Study Prey 8, Flush 1, Monster Lure 1.Spirit: Deathchill 6, Ravages 8, Necrosis 8, Liche 12, Death Nova 1, Wraith Shell 1, Dark Covenant 1, Unearthly Power 8, Outsider 1, Spirit Ward 1, Bane 1, Death Ward 1, Vision Death 1.Of course, this raises questions about which mastery to take first and how to build up towards your end game state. Again, Bown Charmer is extremely simple. As Hunting is your primary, you start with it. Spirit’s key skills only get added later.At game start, you will want a bow. Many of the game’s early mini-bosses, such as Polyphemus and Arachne, are best tackled with a bow anyway. While the early going is quite tough until you get the key bow skills up and running, this is actually a blessing. All builds will struggle at some point as they level up their masteries and skills. Bown Charmer gets the heavy lifting out of the way early, while monsters are still doing laughable damage. Let’s take it Act by Act.From game start, you will want to level up the Hunting mastery immediately, stopping only to drop a point or so into some key skills along the way. So, by level 10, we would have this Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 1, Art Hunt 1, Wood Lore 1, Rest to Hunt mastery L24. The single points in Wood Lore, Art of the Hunt, Marksmanship and Puncture Shot give your arrows just a little bit of zip, but you will likely be progressing slowly at this stage. Don’t worry, you are close to getting the killer skills.After another eight levels, or by the end of Act I Normal, the build is looking like this Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 1, Scatter 6, Volley 5, Art Hunt 1, Wood Lore 6, Mastery maxed. Already that is much better. With Wood Lore maxed, your attack speed is now decent. Volley and Scatter Shot are now both at level 5 and you should be doing great damage, especially against closely packed mobs. Time to make a start in Spirit while gradually maxing out our Hunting skills.By the end of Act II, at approximately level 27, you will have reached this stage Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 6, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Art Hunt 5, Find Cover 1, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 1, Call Hunt 1, Exploit 1, Study Prey 1Spirit: Mastery to L10. This is now starting to own. With Volley and Scatter Shot now maxed as well, mobs will be going down almost instantly, especially with mid-level Puncture Shot adding some welcome pass-through damage. Art of the Hunt is adding some more damage, Herbal Remedy gives some Poison resistance and life regen, Study Prey is started to give help against pierce resistant monsters and Call of the Hunt is available for bosses. Spirit now needs some attention, other than mere leveling.By the end of Act III, at around level 33, you will reach this Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 7, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Art Hunt 5, Find Cover 1, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 1, Call Hunt 1, Exploit 1, Study Prey 1 Spirit: Deathchill 4, Ravages 4, Mastery L16. As you can see, only a couple of points have gone into Hunting, the rest into leveling up Spirit and getting a start in both Deathchill and Ravages of Time. These skills will be useful in Act IV.In Act IV, I continue the Spirit leveling mainly. By the end of Act IV, around level 40, I will have reached this point Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 8, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Art Hunt 6, Find Cover 1, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 1, Call Hunt 1, Exploit 1, Study Prey 1 Spirit: Deathchill 5, Ravages 6, Liche 1, Nova, 1 Shell 1, Death Ward 1, Mastery maxed. I have maxed out both masteries, my Hunting skills and Deathchill aura are at good levels and, even though I won’t use him in Normal, I have a start in the Liche King, ready to roll when I hit the start of Epic.For the first part of Epic, my focus will be on getting the Liche King to good levels, while rounding out other important skills – Study Prey for resistance reduction, Outsider for help with bosses, Herbal Remedy for Poison resistance, Necrosis to start leeching life from all and sundry. By level 50, I will want to be here Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 12, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Art Hunt 8, Find Cover 1, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 6, Call Hunt 1, Exploit 1, Study Prey 5, Monster Lure 1 Spirit: Deathchill 6, Ravages 8, Necrosis 5, Liche 9, Nova, 1 Shell 1, Death Ward 1, Spirit Ward 1, Bane 1, Covenant 1, Unearthly Power 1, Outsider 1. The build is now nearing completion. Necrosis, Art of the Hunt, the Liche King and Study Prey still need a few points each, so it’s time to start pumping Take Down for those Legendary bosses.By level 58 (approximately the end of Epic), I will have reached this Hunt: Marksmanship 1, Puncture 12, Scatter 12, Volley 6, Art Hunt 8, Find Cover 1, Trail Blazing 1, Wood Lore 6, Herbal Remedy 6, Call Hunt 1, Exploit 8, Study Prey 8, Flush Out 1, Monster Lure 1, Take Down 12Spirit: Deathchill 6, Ravages 8, Necrosis 8, Liche 12, Nova, 1 Shell 1, Death Ward 1, Spirit Ward 1, Bane 1, Covenant 1, Unearthly Power 1, Outsider 1. Et voila, almost everything is maxed, including Take Down. In Legendary, it’s just a case of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, putting more points into Art of the Hunt and Find Cover, Call of the Hunt tree, Unearthly Power or whatever else you want.Of course, if you fancy some extra crowd control in Vision of Death, you can pop a point into there whenever you like – even relatively early in Normal. However, by this point at end of Epic, you’re well set. You are fully capable with bow and spear, Take Down and Necrosis are maxed, the Liche King is at a high level (especially with +skills items and a Mastery shrine) to wreak his Soul Blight havoc, and your buffs and debuffs such as Study Prey, Art of the Hunt and Call of the Hunt are all at usable levels.

The above illustrates how crucial Strength is to the Bown Charmer. My one Apollo’s Will has reduced my Str to the point where it’s only a bit higher than my Dex. Equipping a second Apollo’s Will, replacing my current Hale, would see my Str plummet calamitously. Ideally, I want my physical damage toons to have at least 800 Str.AttributesThis is really simple. Both bow and spear users benefit from Dex, not just for the piercing damage and equipment requirement but also for OA and DA. So just go 1:1 Str: Dex throughout. If you are feeling a bit fragile, by all means pop a point or two into Health. But I never found it necessary. Spirit gets no Strength so, even with the preponderance of Hale gear later on, you still need to pump it to get your Str and base damage up to high levels.Battle TacticsIt must be said that, even though Bown Charmer is superb with both bow and spear, the latter weapon has no AoE capability at all. So it is not ideal against mobs. Reserve it instead for bosses such as the Hydra, and perhaps also against Champions or Heroes who are harder to kill with bow for whatever reason.Generally, I favour kiting and am very comfortable taking on all trash with a bow. Bown Charmer gives you a nice edge in this regard as pursuing melee foes are instantly slowed when entering Deathchill’s radius. They also do less damage to you courtesy of Ravages of Time. And you can leech life off them with Necrosis and an …of Devouring weapon or Soul Shiver artifact or a socketed Anubis’ Wrath relic. So, of all the archers, Bown Charmer has the least to fear from melee monsters. However, if a particularly tough monster manages to breach your ranged barrage, don’t be shy to hit W, switch to spear and deal with it up close and personal. Spear toons with shields are an awful lot tougher than shield-less archers. You have options, exercise and optimise them.Also do not be shy to fire up Dark Covenant and Unearthly Power. The life drain may seem off-putting at first but it is offset by Herbal Remedy and, besides, you will be leeching so much life off everything you hit that you won’t even notice the drain. When one or two hits fill your health bar completely, losing a small percentage of your life over time is not a biggie at all.

Defense & NatureThe Idea/Goal/PurposeAfter finishing the whole game with 2 different Guardians without any deaths, some forumers requested me to create a Guardian Guide and seeing as how (surprisingly) this forum has no Guardian guides while there are a lot of people who ask for help with their Guardian, ive decided to create one. This forum has some really amazing and well made builds and I have tried some of them out, some builds offer huge damage and some other builds offer “immortality” but as we all know there is no such thing as immortality in Titan Quest, the closest you can get is probably with an immortal haruspex but even that toon has its weakness, dying from AoE attacks or reflect for example, and that’s why I wanted to create a different kind of tank, one that relies on a smarter gameplay that wont get you killed because you received too much reflect or because “dat aoe hit you for 5k damage”.. thus, I will discuss about the making of a powerful tank that has huge and I mean HUGE health (HP) but at the same time has max resistances, a very powerful debuff, reflect, pet buffs, decent damage and a smart tactic along with a brilliant shield method.. a tank that will not be scared of the rocks of Typhon or the AoE’s of Hades. If you like playing tanky classes that are extremely hard to take down, then I believe you are going to like this idea.The build starts to shine later in the game, epic and mostly legendary. In normal and epic your main purpose is to familiarize yourself with the skills and the tactics. Farming should be done slightly in epic and mostly in legendary.The Masteries

Both masteries provide some good skills so I cannot say with certainty which one of the 2 (Defense/Nature) is the main one, not that it matters though. But lets see what these masteries have to provide. Nature will take care of the HP boost with the Heart of Oak, some speed and resistances along with the wolves that will prove a great asset later on in the game.. lets also not forget about one of the most powerful debuffs in the game, Plague! And last but not least, the refresh skill which will be useful. Defense on the other hand is going to make your Guardian hard as a rock while keeping the damage in good levels, even for dealing with multiple opponents, the reflect skill of Guardian will be useful as well. Defense provides so many Trigger skills (skills that activate while you attack or while you are being attacked).Skills of DefenseColossus: The boss killer, adds damage and damage absorbtion. Lasts for a short period of time, that’s why you should use it only when needed, mostly for boss runs imo.Battle Awareness & Synergies (Focus,Iron will): Probably your best defensive skill, treasure it! Adds shield block which will be essential for the build as well as some resistances that you dont usually get from items such as freeze resistance or entrapement, very very useful because if you get trapped while fighting multiple opponenes it could be dangerous, even though as i said this build is gonna be super tanky, so no worries.Rally & Synergies: I personally dislike this skill, but it will be one of the main skills for boss runs because of the reflect synergy.Adrenaline & Synergies: This is gonna be procing all the time in legendary, one of the best skills of Defense definitely, it will help you deal with multiple opponents as well as bosses because it adds damage and speed.Quick Recovery: The magical skill of this build, this is going to be active at all times in end game, blocking all the incoming damage from mobs and some of the incoming damage from bosses.Disable, Pulverise and Shield Smash: Those are trigger skills, they exist in the background and they activate when you attack, as you add more points into those skills, their chance increases as well. They will help you slow and disable your enemy, even deal with multiple enemies (pulverize). A technique that allows shield and weapon to hit simultaneously. Key skills!Shield Charge & Disruption: Assign this in your right mouse click. You will only put 1 point in shield charge but you will max Disruption because it is the best way to kill multiple enemies, at first you stun them and if they are still alive you wipe them =DConcussive Blow: This works only with clubs/maces so it will be one of the main skills in end game, but feel free to put some points in it anytime in the game as long as you use a mace that is. It adds a good stun effect, very helpful.Armor Handling: It will give you access to better gear earlier in the game, also adds some nice defense, especially useful in the beginning of the game.Batter (Not butter ): Assign it in your left mouse click, a nice strong shield attack that slows the enemies, its synergy Rend Armor allows Batter to hit more opponents at the same time.Skills of NaturePlague: Its your main debuff, you will be using this always and against everyone. At some point later in the game you will have to max Plague and the synergies. It decreases the strength,speed and defense of your enemy and it spreads to nearby enemies, one of the best skills in Titan Quest.Heart Of Oak & Synergies: Crusial skill, adds huge amount of HP, some speed and resistances.Refresh: Takes some time off the cooldown of skills making them available more often, useful.Call of the Wild: Wolves,they get stronger as you add points, you can have more wolves in higher levels. We will be using them mostly for their buff though (Strength of the Pack) which adds damage and total speed not only to the wolves but also to you.Leveling UpFirst off, i want to say that this guide is mostly focused on end game.. but i will still try to give you some tips about the game progression until you reach the end. “For the Normal difficulty it is better if you buy green gear from the Shops, look for veteran’s chest piece which will provide the chance to avoid projectiles and of the glade gloves or boots , 2 hardy/robust/hale rings and a necklace of the cat/lynx/tiger for speed and stately or hallowed helm, socket those depending on what you need, i usually socket most of my gear with speed/damage relics/charms in normal in order to make the game go faster, in epic you will start getting nice purple gear and you can start replacing the greens. Green gear can be obtained from the merchants in each difficulty and town, i advise you to look for veteran’s green weapons and green shields that give strength/Hp/Damage/Speed..changing your shield and weapon in each act at least once is very important.. the rest of the gear can be kept pretty much throughout the whole difficulty if you cannot find anything better. For example when i was leveling my second guardian i found an excellent piece of veteran’s breastplate with 22% chance to avoid projectiles, 20% defensive ability, HP, damage resistance, i socketed it with mechanical parts and used it up until Orient in Epic because up until that moment i hadnt found anything better than that, and of course all the green equipment that i found was a lot worse, only a really good purple can replace such green, really”.Lets proceed with leveling.. i usually start with defense, put 2 points into the mastery tree and 1 point into armor handling. Once you find a shield, put a point into batter and the rest in the mastery tree again. Until level 8 just max shield smash and put the rest of the points into the defense mastery tree and 1 point into quick recovery. Once you get to unlock the second mastery, choose nature and immediately unlock the call of the wild. From now on, focus on the nature tree for awhile, add points into the mastery tree until you unlock plague and heart of oak (while doing this, try to max armor handling from the defense skills), max plague (not the synergies yet) and max heart of oak (not the synergies), try to be adding same amount of points in each so that they get maxed at the same time, dont max the one first and leave the other one without points. While maxing the 2 skills, try to add a few points in quick recovery. Put 1 point into shield charge.If you want to be relatively tanky in the beginning of the game, invest in some Hale gear for maybe the 2-3 pieces of your armor, anything with hp boost will be a great help because Heart of Oak is going to boost that HP bonus even more. With my first guardian i took out normal typhon in 12 seconds because i had invested a lot in HP/Str (like 3-4 pieces of the gear combined with HoO).PS: The cyclops in early greece (polyphemus) can be tricky to kill because you are gonna tackle him while you are pretty much naked, so i would suggest having a low level bow or staff and kill him like that.Now you are around level 20 your skill setup should look something like this: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Guardian&master1=4&master2=5&sa=0&m1=4-0-1-12-0-0-8-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=12-0-0-1-6-0-0-8-6-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0Now its time to max the defense tree, every time you unlock a new skill, add 1 point into it and continue maxing the defense tree (ignore concussive blow if your weapon is not a club). When the defense tree is maxed, add 1 point into colossus and 3 more points into iron will, then proceed to max pulverize,disable,disruption in that order.You are now around level 36-39 and your skill setup should look like this: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Guardian&master1=4&master2=5&sa=0&m1=4-0-1-12-0-0-8-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=32-0-1-1-6-1-1-8-6-1-1-1-1-1-6-1-4-6-1-1-6-0-0-0-0Dont rush to finish normal, make sure that you are in your early 40’s at least, before you go to Epic.This is your main goal so from now add the points respectively until you reach your final build: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Guardian&master1=4&master2=5&sa=0&m1=32-0-6-12-0-1-8-0-1-8-6-0-0-0-6-12-0-8-12-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=32-8-1-1-6-1-1-8-6-6-6-1-1-2-6-8-2-6-1-8-6-0-0-0-0-0. In titan calc it says 75 but it is actually not, because you will also be receiving skill points from quests in each difficulty, so by around level 69-70 you will have the above build. When you reach level 75 you can max some other useful skills like the 2 synergies of rally (not rally itself) or anything else you want.Attribute Points (including the 18 points that you receive from quest rewards throughout the game): Until level 35 add 1 point into Strength and 1 Point into Dexterity in each level. From level 35 until 65 add 1 point into health and 1 point into dexterity with each level. For the last 10 remaining levels 65-75 add everything into HP. You do not need more strength because you will be using hale rings and possibly other items that will boost your strength, armor handling will also lower strength requirements for gear.Gameplay, Basic Skills and MethodsYour main defensive skill against mobs (both ranged and melee) is quick recovery, so by late epic make sure to have a shield with at least 40% block chance and by legendary a shield with 45% block chance. Let me explain how this method works. Quick Recovery has a 45 second duration at level 12 which you will achieve with your end game build, but its recharge time is longer than 45 seconds, so what you need to do is use the refresh skill of nature mastery in order to be able to have quick recovery at all times. You can only put a few points into refresh in order to achieve that, but I prefer having refresh maxed because it also helps lowering the cooldowns of your other skills. Now, in your end game build you will have over 100% chance to block, (45-49% from your shield, 25% from quick recovery, 25% from focus, and 5% from your chest piece and some more from your shield relic) this means that every time you get attacked you will block the indicated amount of damage on your shield, for example soldier’s undying will blocks 733 damage. This all sounds great but the thing is that shields have a 2,5-3,0 seconds cooldown after every successful block. So quick recovery comes to rescue again, with maxed quick recovery you will also get -90% shield recovery time and with a shield like Ancile or I would suggest Soldier’s Undying Will socketed with a turtle shell charm you will get the remaining –recovery time required in order to achieve 100% block chance without a block cooldown, in short you will be able to block all incoming damage and since most monsters don’t hit you for over 733 damage, you will most of the time not be receiving any damage at all. Quick recovery also blocks incoming damage from bosses, so for whatever they hit you, you will receive 733 less damage (this doesn’t apply on Area of Effect skills). So let me say this again, you need to have quick recovery active at all times in higher levels (of course in early game this wouldn’t be possible, so just use it whenever you can). This is basically how it’s gonna be: Use quick recovery > Refresh > quick recovery again, and so on.With the refresh method you can have Rally up at all times as well, i dont personally use it always but it is a good buff that you can probably use all the time together with quick recovery. Rally is pretty much a boss killer when it comes to bosses that can deal huge damage like barmanu “watch the short video in the end of the guide”.Resistances: With the gear I will suggest later on and with the relics and charms that you can add on your items, you should reach max resistances on everything which will lead to a lot less damage received. Your HP is going to be around 20.000 or more so there is really no way you die unless you let them kill you. In order to receive even less damage, you will be using Plague against everyone. This is mainly how you are gonna kill anything on your way: Throw Plague > Shield Charge/Batter (At this point pulverize and the rest will hit as well) > all’s dead > Repeat. In boss fights you can also use colossus form which will make you ridiculously overpowered to the point that skills that can 1 hit other classes, will only take a really small portion off your life which you can replenish again with a few hits of your weapon due to your attack damage converted to health from Sapros and from the green mace socketed with Anubis relic. So when fighting bosses you have the following: Colossus (Decreases ALL incoming damage and increases your damage and strength), quick recovery (decreases 733 of the incoming damage,excluding aoe damage),plague (decreases your opponent’s damage,defense and elemental resists and speed), Sapros the Corrupter (decreases the resistances of the opponent, so you kill much much faster), Rally (reflects damage and adds more speed and elemental resistance), adrenaline (increases total damage and speed).How do you kill stuff? Start with plague/Shield charge/batter, make sure to attack one time with sapros in order to lower the resistances of the enemy and then switch to your secondary green club and kill. Basically, you have 2 of the most powerful debuffs in the game, plague and Sapros. So once both debuffs are applied on the opponent, all you have to do is switch to your strong green club and kill the opponent. If the opponent is a tough boss, then switch to sapros and apply plague every few seconds. While you attack you are gonna be replenishing a lot of lost HP because both your weapons will have the attack damage converted to health stat. For trash mobs you might as well just kill them with your green club in order to save time. The synergy of Call of the Wild (Strength of the Pack) will also give you more damage and speed when you are fighting against mobs/bosses, but you need to have your wolves active if you want to get that buff so make sure that when your wolves die you spawn them again.

A Dream character who likes to kill enemies in their sleep…The main ideas behind this are toKill enemies exclusively via damage over time (DoT)Not require -100% recharge or any exceptional gearDo well in legendaryand they are made possible by exploiting the facts thatElement DoT profits greatly from high intelligenceSleep, slow and petrify provide very good crowd controlSleeping enemies are not awoken by already running DoTsWith that being said, you can imagine what he/she will play like. It does work well, and is an interesting and fun way to approach the game, which could even be done as a single-mastery Dream mage. I could also have called this “The Running Man”, because what you do most in between spellcasting is run a lot – in order to herd, kite and position yourself.So much for the layout. But since this is supposed to be a guide, let’s go a bit more into detail.Electrical Burn DamageSands of SleepEBD attacks and tacticsOther Dream SkillsSecond Mastery & BuildsGear1) Electrical Burn Damage (EBD)It is known that DoT-based builds are ineffective beyond normal difficulty, because the damage types lack the supporting factors they would need to keep up with monster health. Luckily, there is an exception to that rule, called Electrical Burn. Burn because all burn damages (as opposed to poison or bleeding) scale with intelligence, and electrical because it is the only kind of burn for which there are good sources in skills as well as high +% boosts on items.When EBD is calculated, every 50 Int increases the base value by 10%, so a late-game char with 1000 Int gets 200% more base damage, or a factor of 3x the value stated in the spell’s tooltip. The knack is that this int-boost is multiplicative with normal +% increases from gear and skills, which makes it easily possible to make that a total factor of 9x, 12x or more with the right gear, as was discussed here. With some resistance breakers, this can result in area-effect DoT (and stun) in the 10k-20k range, allowing for “one hit kills” even in legendary.Output = Spellbase * (1 + Int/500) * (1 + %EBD/100)In addition to this, the EBD output can be increased by %total damage mods (those count towards %EBD), and through (actually total) bonuses against certain monster races.%Elemental or %Lightning boni do not increase electric burn, though it is being resisted by lightning resistance.Simple math states that if you have a choice between increasing your damage output via Int or the respective amount of %EBD (e.g. raising int by 50 vs. gaining +10% EBD), it is always more effective to increase the part whose contribution is currently lower, because it makes a larger relative difference.Like if your character has 500 Int and a total of +100% to EBD, both parts have the same influence, and both options would do the same. But if you had 500 Int and already +300% EBD, raising your Int to 550 would have a greater overall effect (+50/500) than adding another 10% to the EBD boost (+10/300). Capiche?TL/DR: Dream Spells * Intelligence * %Boosts + Resistance Reduction = Kick Ass.2) Sands of SleepThis skill is amazing, as was pointed out here. But it is even better for our build, since we do not need to attack (=awake) them more than once every few seconds – enough time for sleep to recharge. And once they are burning, the DoT does not wake them up if put to sleep again!So apart from having a fast, cheap crowd control skill that only a few bosses are immune to, we circumvent sleep’s greatest drawback, which is not being allowed to damage enemies under its effect.Make them burn, then put them to sleep, and they are going to have some deadly nightmares!

3) EBD Attacks and TacticsIn order to deliver the EBD, we have two options, namely Distortion Wave / Psionic Immolation (DW) and Distort Reality / Temporal Rift (DR). I like using both, once I have the points, but be advised that their effects do not stack. – Nor does any other EBD. Tests show that only the highest DoT (of one type) currently affecting a target is applied.Against non-demons, Distortion Wave inflicts only around 75% of the damage the DR ring offers (767 at ultimate level versus 1084). But it has a longer range, and a much lower cooldown. Combined with the fact that the pysical damage of the wave itself is quite useful in the early game, and available at level 2, it is the better choice at first.Skilling DR starts out as a good addition, allowing you to “burn” more often and granting a way to stop monster heroes who happen to be immune to sleep or slow. With its superior damage and astonishing AoE petrification, it can also replace the wave completely once one has access to enough -recharge gear: Thanks to sleep, it is usually safe (and very satisfying) to casually walk into the middle of a large group before casting DR for maximum effect.This is also the safest tactic to play in dangerous areas: Just throw Sands ahead until it hits some enemies (up to 7 at max level), stand between them, and hit DR every 4-8 secs to paralyze and burn the entire camp. Just be aware that petrification can be resisted, so some monsters break free from it early.On the other hand, it is faster just to combine the two attacks according to the situation. The beauty of the wave is that you can hit many enemies in a line, or dangerous ones from a safe distance, while DR is best used when they close in from several directions.Use your speed to position yourself (and them) in a way that makes your spells most effective – especially when you are still working with long cooldowns.For maximum damage, cast a wave on a group from a distance before putting them to sleep and then position yourself for DR.Vs Bosses:Bosses don’t sleep, nor can they be petrified. 🙁 The simple plan is to just avoid their attacks and hit them with DW or DR every 4 game seconds (the actual time is a little more) to keep them sizzling until they drop. No super killer skills here. On the upside, we do have the liberty to run in circles while still doing the damage, so we should use that to the fullest. Like I said – kiting is a big part of this build, so there is no shame in it.Another feature that comes in handy is that they pass through obstacles. – You can sometimes use that to your advantage to fire at enemies from behind cover, or even through some walls.

The best thing vs. certain champions is that your wave attacks cannot be dodged, nor blocked. So this build excels at wrecking those pesky Tigerman leaders with Quick Recovery… and Dactyls.Still, when duking it out with the big guys, it is good to bring a distraction and/or have ways to avoid damage, which we will get to next.4) Other Dream SkillsFrom the rest of the dream mastery we want whatever helps us survive and increase EBD, so the Lucid Dream tree is a no-brainer (with Prenominiton being least important, as you should not get hit by melee). One point in Distortion Field is nice to ward off enemy DoT.I always put at least 1/1 in Nightmare and its gaze, which helps to keep single stray monsters off my back (set to “defensive”). By level 5 it gets the ability to leech life. And if you have the points, you can of course max it and send it tanking, which the little guy is surprisingly good at.Phantom Strike can be used as a teleport to get in between or away from mobs, because this build is likely to carry a weapon+shield (for defense and bonuses) rather than a staff. One could also deliver -resists this way. But it is not necessary to have.The biggest question is what Aura to use:Trance of Wrath does electrical burn just by walking past enemies, and can provide an easy way to get through most of normal by just maxing it. More importantly, however, it helps your EBD by lowering enemy lightning resistances, and annoys bosses with skill disruption (though you’d have to be close).The big downside is that it periodically zaps – and thereby wakes up – sleeping monsters. This can be very annoying if you want to keep control / defend yourself with Sands.So it’s useful, especially if you are lacking better resistance breakers, but kind of a double-edged sword. You’ll have to be aware and adapt your playstyle accordingly.Trance of Convalescence does not increase your damage, but also keeps nobody around you from perishing in peaceful sleep. It helps you stay alive, which is always an advantage, and regenerates energy, which you will be using up fast.Trance of Empathy seems like a bad choice since we are not intent on getting hit, and life leech only works with weapons. However, it might be useful to your allies. And if you ever came across a situation where a boss seems just too strong (though you might need a mod for that ) you could use this on your tanking Nightmare (or other pet/dummy from another mastery) to make the boss kill himself from reflection.So apart from special occasions, it is between ToW and ToC – of which I chose the latter.5) Second Mastery & BuildsLike I said before, this build could be played as a pure Seer. On the other hand it would be nice to have a second mastery support his offensive or defensive capabilities… or both.I hate to say it, but even here, a Haruspex build is probably the best choice. (At least he will be a different flavor among the hordes of bow/spear users…)Hunting gives our elusive mage run speed and immunity to entrapment, good poison resists, and an even higher chance to avoid projectiles (up to another immunity if you are so inclined). The Monster Lure is just what we need to distract bosses, and we even get the huge DA bonus from Wood Lore, because this char is best played with a certain fork in hand.The main reason, however, is that from all the skills that reduce resistance to lightning (which is the only other way we have to increase EBD even further) Study Prey / Flush Out is the only one that does it absolutely, instantly, over a large area and without constant “wake-up effects” to it. It synergizes perfectly with DR, which has about the same radius. Standing in a sleeping group, then firing off DR and Study makes them all burn and um… flush at the same time (if they could ), taking up to 44% increased damage, which usually kills the whole lot.The latter can also be done with a Prophet and Squall. While not quite as effective on the -resists side, and more fragile, a Prophet can also be played in many other ways than just Sleep / DR / Squall, combining all the possibilities (and personal defenses) of this build with the offensive power of a Storm mage. Definitely worth a try.The third viable option is Defense, namely an intelligent Templar. This may seem even stranger than Hunting…. but if you get a nice shield and a little strength to carry it (Armor Handling helps, and Captain’s Signet makes it 50% lighter), you can combine Quick Recovery with some -recharge gear for amazing protection against everything but AoE attacks.This also makes it safe to Phantom Strike / Shield Charge into groups and deliver -resists with your weapon, which can be an even greater debuff than Flush Out with the right relics and gear. Apart from that, he plays just like a pure Dream mage – with nice defenses (resists, mana/life regen) on top.Other combos like Nature with Plague, Spirit with Necrosis etc. are also possible of course, but those playstyles deviate more from our focus on sleep and maximal EBD. I’ll leave it to you to explore these.

Saur0n 0wnz y0o, Rotflolol0lz !!!!6) GearFinally, the dress up section.I usually use what I can find. There are, however, some basic principles for choosing gear:First of all, as I said, we do not need a staff. Not even the Prophet – he has Shards. Of course you can use one to support your spells, especially in the early stages. But when your spells get better and survival starts becoming harder, I would recommend a shield in addition to a low-strength weapon, like a spear.What we do need besides the usual resists is both +% EBD and great amounts of intelligence to boost our damage – preferrably intelligence. This means anything with +%Int or high flat +Int boni, like Diogenes items and headgear with Odysseus relic.In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Int is the main stat. 😉 All others are only increased in order to wear equipment or get more hitpoints.From the gear that increases EBD, one should try and get two parts of the Raiment of Carnus in order to get the set boni, preferrably the armor and helm. The Grip is good, too, but that slot will be taken by the Archmage’s Clasp if you have it. And for boots, you should look for something with increased run speed, ultimately Demonskin Walkers.The Amulet of Morpheus is great and gives a huge +3 skills to Dream, while the Eye of Reveries offers a nice collection of different boosts. Things that give +skills (we want max+4) and increase sleep duration, like the Book of Dreams, are always welcome.As a weapon, nothing beats the Soulflay Fork, though any weapon with +% total damage from Tyrant prefix and/or Thanatos relics is good.IF you want to spread gear-based -resists for even more damage, e.g. in boss fights, you could start by hitting them with the Fingerbone of Boreas (or any staff with Sheng Nong) before proceeding with your main attack. Templars may also use the Defiler (Sapros light) combined with the Shield of the Korybantes if you can hold it. The Frail, an early alternative to Archmage’s Clasp, is a good addition in both cases.As a shield mainly used for protection, Hephaest’s is nice for those who can carry it (Templars), which is helped by its additional req reduction. Otherwise, anything that gives resists (normal/epic greens, with a turtle shell) or reduces recharge time is welcome. For lots of DA, choose Soldier’s Unyielding Will.Or, if you don’t want to invest in strength at all, just get Santa’s Peppermint from the secret passage.7) ConclusionAll in all, the EBD Mage is an unusual yet effective char that is very fun to play. Mainly because the playstyle is so different, based around casting spells efficiently rather than often, and movement not being an alternative to doing damage.And as you can see, a lot can be said even about such a “simple” principle.I hope you enjoyed the guide, and got some inspiration out of it.Further suggestions are always welcome.CheersVio

After being a silent reader in this forum for quite some time, I thought I might as well start big and post a guide to a class that seems to be a little underappreciated: the Magician.

The reason for me to choose this combination was simply wanting to try a character who uses Rogue's Throwing Knives as a main attack. My first TQ-toon ever was an Assassin and I instantly fell in love with the skill. But to have any viability at all, the build would have to offer some different and of course "scalable" damage type apart from those provided by the Rogue mastery, and the choice boiled down to Sorceror or Magician, of which I chose the latter for reasons mostly concerned with finding the right gear to synergize with the main damage type and because I always nurture a soft spot for the underdog

First, let me lay down some "warnings" about this build:It surely isn't the highest damage build out there.The term "glass cannon" might have been coined by this build.It is heavily gear dependent but that shouldn't be too much of a problem, considering you have the Vault at your disposal. So, luckily, it is not like those infamous Diablo II builds which require you farming on the BattleNet for five years straight to acquire the necessary items.The build does not develop it's full potential before level 45 and you may encounter some problems at boss fights prior to that.

Those are the major drawbacks and with them being out of the way, let's have a look at the advantages:Great crowd control, I actually made this toon especially for playing with the Xmax-ModYou'll be a mad knive-spraying machine!Straightforward gameplay, using roughly just two active skills.Energy problems? What's that?An Earth mastery caster build that doesn't need the Core Dweller (I'm not big on pets...)

So, done with the prelude, let's get to the guide:

GearI'll start with the items you should use and believe me, it's mostly quite mandatory, not much wriggle room in this department.

Your gear has to provide three things, primarily:as much -%recharge, as possibleadding fire damage to your knivesget +4 at least to the Rogue skills to maximize the number of knives per flurry up to 9

Chest: CestusAgain, the selling point here is the -15% recharge, but the pierce resistance, procentual increase in INT and health and the double regeneration are nothing to be sneezed at, also. Additionally, it looks awesome, at least in my opinion.

If you feel like it, you may switch to Plouton's Cornucopia at level 47 and basically trade off -10% recharge for +1 skills, which would open more Artifact choices (as seen below), just do as you prefer.

Weapon: Well, this is a caster build, so you'll be using a staff, namely the Heka StaffThis one is perfect, it deals decent base fire damage, has about -20% recharge, lowers energy cost and gives +50% increase in projectile speed, which applies to your knives.

Arms: Archmage's ClaspNow, that really is a no-brainer: massive -% recharge, increased casting and attack speed and a chance to lower resistances (and as is already well known, %chances virtually skyrocket on knives) - what's not to like?

Neck: Aphrodite's FavorYou'll need the resistances and the +2 skills are crucial. Furthermore, 899 additional health go a long way. The only downside here is the 18% chance of mind control. It may look like a nice perk, but all it really does at the end of the day is to slow you down since you can't hit controlled enemies and have to wait for the effect to wear off. And with knives, it proccs ALL. THE. TIME.

Fingers: When it comes to rings, there are simply two choices: Archimede's Cogwheel and Seal of Hephaestus.The Cogwheel adds flat tri-elemental damage to your knives that in the case of the fire part gets heavily augmented by your other gear and Earth Enchantment. On the other hand (no pun intended), the Seal basically doubles the burn damage provided by Brimstone and has a guaranteed +60% fire damage instead of Cogwheel's 33% chance of +33% fire damage. So the question which should be used is a bit iffy and to answer it precisely would involve some serious maths which I'm neither capable of, nor willing to do. Since the Seal becomes available 5 levels earlier, you can gather your own experience with "double-Seal" and compare the performance of different setups when you hit level 45. I prefer to mix them.

Artifact: There are basically two-and-a-half choices of which artifact to use.The first two assume that you wear Cestus, so in order to obtain the maximum number of knives you have to get something with at least +1 to Rogue skills. So it boils down to either Crimson Viper which does exactly that, adds some physical damage, increases your poison and pierce damage, gives some poison resistance, has a nice procc-skill and can provide you with +80% health regeneration as a completion bonus. If you want +1 to all skills, you have to go for Glorybringer, but that doesn't give you anything much interesting apart from that, though the reduced damage from undead/demons is OK and it helps you level a bit faster. Also, pierce resistance as a completion bonus is worth a look.

If you went for Plouton's Cornucopia instead of Cestus, you already have all skills +4, so you can go for the Eye of Ra to further boost your fire damage. Only, it requires level 55, so Heart of the Earth is a possible pick to traverse the 8-level-gap in between.

Alright, but what about the gear I'll be wearing before I hit the late 40s, you might ask?Here goes...

Head: I went with Oracle's Wreath (lvl 9) for quite some time and then switched to a neanderthal shaman's antlers with -% recharge and +skills until level 42.

Weapon: I used a Staff of the Magi for the fire damage and -% recharge with Prometheus' Flame on it. I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon one that also dealt some poison damage. When i reached level 35 I switched to Qa'a until Heka Staff became available.

Arms: Glowing Bangle (lvl 6) was a long term friend, later Bracelets of Illumination(lvl 31) proved useful, as did Dragon's Breath on levels 37 to 40.

Legs: Not much to tell here, up until level 31 just take what's your fancy, then I suggest Loratian Greaves for the +skills, though I replaced them with Leggings of the Defiled at level 42 for some additional protection.

Neck: Early on, Paean (lvl 9) is a good start, after that, Shard of the Elements (lvl 25) and later Eye of Flame (lvl 36) are obvious choices, though you might rather have a Divine charm/necklace/beads/medaillon... to boost your skills, that's up to you.

Fingers: Now, that's so easy, it might even be boring - double-Brimstone or nothing. Yep, you'll be using the same old rings from level 10 to 40.

Artifact: Almost as exciting, as the rings, you want to grab Molten Orb at level 5 and basically keep it until Dragontongue is available on level 35, though since mid-normal can be quite tough on this build and you'll be using your staff more often, Soul Shiver is worth a try on level 20 for the AdctH.

OK, enough with the gear talk and on to skills and levelling:

SkillsPick Rogue as your first mastery, get Envenom Weapon and Throwing Knife and then max the mastery as fast as possible to get to Flurry, cause that's what it's all about, eventually. On your way there, also drop the odd point into Nightshade and of course Mandrake, since your crowd control heavily depends on the knives' high chance to procc confusion.Though climbing up the Rogue tree is our priority, nevertheless don't skip picking Earth on level 8 and put some points in it. Not only because you want some more energy and INT, but because you want earth Enchantment/Brimstone (Stone Skin is not worth the hassle), which are useful even with a single point each that early in the game, and Heat Shield. For survivability reasons I even delayed getting Flurry a bit further to reach Earth level 10 and grab Stone Form - saved my buttocks on many occasions.

Since a single knife is not that useful, you will be attacking with your staff mostly, which is the phase during which most people might get bored with this build, but don't - it will be worth your while when you get there, believe me. Some may be tempted to dabble a bit in Volcanic Orb, but you won't have the energy pool required for that, since Rogue regrettably offers no points there. If you really feel like using another skill on your way to Flurry, you might invest some points into traps instead of the mastery itself, keep count of the spent points and then buy them back to push the mastery to 32 all at once. But i wouldn't really recommend that - partly because I even like traps less than pets.

Once the Rogue mastery is maxed, all points go into Flurry, which fortunately only takes 6 of them. At this point, Throwing Knife at last is more than a gimmick you use every now and then just to do something else. Instead, you will fling a cone of hurt towards your enemies with best wishes and pierce, bleeding, slowing and confusing poison, fire and burn damage all in a neat, fast traveling bunch of packages, hitting everything in it's way. Don't you get a warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach just by reading it?

OK, so now that Flurry is on the go, you should build up the other skills, right? Wrong. Next on the agenda is climbing Earth mastery, sorry. The reasons are simple: you want Eruption and Volativity. The first, because it will be your best friend against bosses, who are sadly immune to the irritating charms of your Mandrake, and the second because a 33% chance of increased fire damage is a friggin' certainty with all those knives, each possibly hitting multiple enemies. And since the flat fire damage your knives carry is nothing to write home about even with high-end gear (I'll admit that much) you need all the increase you can get.

Nevertheless, or rather even because of that, one or two points in Volativity will suffice for now, rather pump Mandrake and Nightshade. Eruption, being vamped by gear and passives also does not require too many points to still kick ass at this time. Sure, it is tempting to crank it up, but you are playing a bladeflinger, remember?

Besides that, increasing your DoTs is a good idea, especially when still being knee-deep in normal difficulty. You won't be able to throw knives too frequently before level 40 when you get your Archmage's on, and this is the way to make every single one of them count the most between casts.

Obviously, that means Brimstone first, since it goes along well with your gear, burn damage profits from INT and it works on the undead and constructs who can't bleed or be poisoned.Don't get me wrong, I won't claim bleeding and poison to be pointless, far from it. I say, get a few points in Anatomy as long as it makes a difference and a fully developed Venom tree is a force to be reckoned with, even later on.

Don't forget that after you hit the enemies with your knives, they will be slowed significantly and a lot of them will be stumbling away from you anyway, due to the confusion, so any conceivable DoT can go a long way here.

I also advise you to sink at least one point into each damage-enhancing "passive" before pumping a specific one, to get the most out of your +skills as soon as possible.

After that, just slowly put more points into all the skills you use, there is really no rush to max any of them. Eventually, max out the Venom tree, Volativity, Eruption and even Anatomy - it may not be much and it's just bleeding, but it's damage.Once you are there, you can do whatever you like with any further points - maybe get some Ring of Flames as a cherry on top or increase Heat Shield so it lasts longer, or, if you just cannot resist, get yourself a pet, why would I care? It won't help you that much, anyway.

And that's already it, skillwise - plain and simple.

AttributesAttribute point investment is as basic, as it comes: just INT. Your masteries alone will provide you with a total base dexterity of 178, which is already 4 more than you need for your equipment (174 on Demonskin Walkers being the highest requirement). So every point can be used to bolster your burn and fire damage. Maybe you might consider putting some points into health, but that shouldn't be necessary. One Seal of Hephaestus and Aphrodite's Favor alone add 1149 points of health and Cestus increases the lot by another 10%.

GameplayGameplay is equally straightforward. As I mentioned earlier, you will be using a mere two skills in combat, not counting the odd Stone Form, which you won't be using very often after level 45 anyway.

The main thing that you do is SPAMMING knives all over the place.

With all the -% recharge on your gear, which will get you up to around -95% (my Archmage's Clasps provide 46% alone), the casting and recharge time are basically the same which amounts to practically instantaneous refresh and you can just hold down your right mouse button, dishing out knives like a crazed Charged Boltress in Diablo II. And since Throwing Knives are darn cheap, you could keep this up for minutes without ever worrying about your energy pool. So you don't have to be picky, don't wait for more enemies to appear or kiting them in a tighter pack to take more advantage of your Flurry. As soon, as you see or even suspect a monster to be there, just point in the general direction and hold down the right button, your knives, sped up further by Heka Staff, will travel off screen for a decent range and oftentimes on your way you will encounter the corpses of monsters of whose existence you have never even been aware. Unfortunately, "untargetted" knives tend to develop a nasty habit of flying straight into the ground if there is a slope in front of you. So it is safer to click on an enemy, since then the angle is adjusted to enable you throwing them "uphill". But as long as you are on fairly level grounds, feel free to hold that button down (also using shift if you like), wave the cursor around and just go nuts.

Of course, before you get to level 42 which completes your recharge gear with Hesione's Golden Veil, you will do quite some kiting and using your staff or Eruption, when push comes to shove. Eruption at your feet plus Stone Form is likely to be a quite popular tactic in mid-to-end normal.

That brings us right to Eruption's main role in this build: boss battles. Bosses tend to laugh at Throwing Knives, so here Eruption comes in. I won't say it's a substitute, because it quite frankly is pretty awesome, it just is not the main focus of the build and as such it is "merely" a backup skill for boss fights. And a darn good one, since with full recharge gear you can SPAM Eruption and thanks to the increased casting speed you don't have to stop too long to place it at the feet of the boss monster, before legging it to evade it's attacks. Also, it can be a nice touch to cast a couple of Eruptions halfway between you and a big host of monsters, fling some blades at them to lure the lot through the field of fiery doom and clean up the remains once the dust has settled.

Sure, in your pre-fourties, some bosses have the potential to send you up to your room crying, no pudding and no TV, especially when they are multiplied by the Xmax-Mod. So on normal difficulty, you seriously should refrain from wrestling the following bosses with the mod active:

The GorgonsGeez, are you crazy? You just have a slow-firing staff and a single knife every few seconds and now there are multiple healers among them, I mean, seriously - what were you thinking?

The Giant ScarabBelieve me, you don't want to be slowed and poisoned at all, least of all by more than one of this bugger at once.

The NeanderthalHe is also pretty tough when being alone and you won't have Eruption at this point, which could make it more manageable. I did succeed to kill a triplet of him, eventually - but I died about 12 times in the process - not worth it.

CerberusYou might have considerable offensive power by now, but your poison resistance STINKS. So prepare to hate the whole freaking Tower of frigging Judgement for being packed with those nasty flying, poison bomb hurling squid anyway.

I have yet to encounter the Manticore, who might be another jawbreaker and I shudder to think what might happen when I dare face the Hydra, but up until then, this is the most fun I've had with any toon this far - and there have been a lot over all those years.

Alright, so that's it - I appreciate the probably single person who bothered to read all those lengthy ramblings, even if it was just to make fun of me and tell me how wrong I am, afterwards.

But hey, there aren't that many Magician-Guides out there, so it was worth a shot.

So you want to have a good character who mows down any monster he faces with little effort. If that's not your bag, then close this thread immediately.

Very well then. I had three requirements for this possibly the best character in the game.

1) Fully xmax proof. Dying very rarely, only because of the player's severe mistake. Bosses x3 can't be a problem.2) Huge mounts of "real world" DPS. The character must be able to beat any and all monster types in the game under 5 seconds with end-game items. That includes Hydra, Typhon etc. it excludes Charon and Hades, for those each form has to be killed under 5 seconds.3) Item farming kept to a minimum, until legendary.

The beginning is very easy, so just pick a stave and clear the early areas. As you level up, unlock Deathchill and put one point in it. Then unlock Ternion and Arcane Lore. Proceed to max Arcane Lore, Ternion and Deathchill in that order.

After maxing Arcane Lore you are most likely doing very satisfying DPS. Mana usage might seem a bit high, but just keep drinking those potions. Also remember that you can shoot lone monsters with normal staff attack, only use Ternion against tough monsters or groups.

But that's only for those who don't want to drink potions all the time. I want to use Ternion all the time for max damage.

Maxing Spirit mastery and one point to Outsider and Death Ward are next. At that point you are about at the end of act 1 or in the beginning of act 2.

At this point I want to discuss a bit about the basic tactics of this build, and spending attribute points.

You will want to face all monsters face to face. That's right, even if you are a mage, you should go to a point-blank range, as close as you can. This will ensure that all projectiles hit the monster in front of you. Using ALT to shoot where you stand will be essential. If you are too far, one or two projectiles will miss, resulting in less damage done. You don't want to be doing less damage...do you?

Arcane Lore has a blast radius spreading the love you send to the monsters in form of DPS. So it doesn't really matter what stave you use, just upgrade it every now and then.

Then attribute points. I like to spend all quest reward attribute points to health. That results in 450 HP without any +% health bonuses. That's 18 attribute points. It's entirely up to you if you want to do the same, though I suggest it since Spirit doesn't give you that much health. Don't put anything in energy, Spirit gives you plenty of that.

Put only enough int to meet stave requirements. We're looking at 320 at the end of normal, 450 at the end of epic, and 550 at the end of legendary. We don't need int to boost damage for us, we've got other means.

And that leaves us with more points in str and dex. Why dex?

Because you want to stay alive. Let's face it. You're a mage or hybrid, and you want to face all baddies half a feet from their face. You'll need good mounts of DA. It's crucial.

For str, for optimum build, which I'll discuss later in this thread, you'll need 493. That's right, 493. It's very high for a mage/hybrid, while trying to have 550 int and good amounts of dex. So high actually, that you may not reach it, unless you farm for good items and be at level 65+. So you may leave your str at base value, and focus on dex and health instead. However, doing that you miss some good melee items that can boost your DA.

Now let's proceed to act 2. Nothing special here, except you should farm for Anubis' Wrath relic and stick it in your stave. After you got one, preferably with attack speed completion bonus (though it is not that big in normal so don't worry about it), stick it in your stave. Then max Necrosis, so you'll convert lot of damage to health. After act 2 you should look something like this (only use Ravages of Time if you have the unofficial patch):

Now, you may have noticed that I have not said anything about a secondary mastery. That's only because it does not matter. You can choose whatever you like. Anything goes. Anything. But for optimum build (in my opinion) go with Dream. I will not discuss the secondary mastery until later in this guide.

In acts 3&4 just up your resistances, mainly pierce, but don't foget the others. You should do just fine. Try to keep your DA high enough that you won't get critted. 400 at the end on normal is decent amount, 500 would be good. Keep increasing int to keep up with the requirements that the merchants have for staves. You may have to throw some points into dex every now and then. You should save some attribute points for later use. Shop for a good ring, like Plato's/Aristotle's ring or Robust/Hale ring to increase your int or str. Try to have Demon's blood with +% vitality resistance completion bonus in it. Great place to farm for one is in Wusao cave just before telkine #3, there are a lot of those little fire demons in there. Other good place is level 2 in Tower of Judgement, those Limos demons have high chance of dropping Demon's Blood.

Either start boosting your Liche or secondary mastery in act 3. I recommend that you have at least some points in Liche.

Another build possibility is to max Psionic Immolation as soon as possible. It does tons of damage and has short cooldown. Lucid Dream will boost the damage even further.

When you reach epic, check the shops to get your hands on some staff (any will do) with ~of the Harrowing suffix. It is quite rare, but it is worth it. I guarantee that. It reduces health by 12-15%, and with Ternion, it will apply thrice. That's a lot of health lost for the enemy. Necrosis will take care of lowering vitality resistance, so you'll convert plenty of damage to health. You should get Plato's/Socrate's ring now at the latest. You can now go for any skill you like, increase the level of your secondary mastery to gain more hitpoints, and continue maxing Liche if it isn't already. Just don't touch Arcane Blast.

In act 2 farm for Anubis' relic with +% as completion bonus. Act 3 gives you the awesome Monkey King's relic. With it you can reduce resistances, have some skill disruption, elemental resistance and preferably pierce resistance as competon bonus. You might be using some yellow/green jewelry, one of those should have demons blood with vitality resistance completion bonus, and one of them could have Monkey King's relic, though it isn't absolutely necessary. At the end of act 4 you should have preferably 700 DA or more. Again focus your items on resistances and DA, not elemental damage. Your build should be doing very well.

In legendary get the same items, Anubis' Wrath with +% as, Monkey King's relic with +% piere res if you need that res. Demon's Blood charm with +% vitality res. Shoot for as high DA as you can, you may want to keep some attribute points unspent, you never know what you might find. If you decide to go for 493 str, then shop for Hale rings with suffixes that give you +dex or +int. I'd try to get 2x of them. If you decide to not go with high str you can just use whatever you like. Maybe shop for higher base damage stave with ~of the Harrowing suffix. Try to get some +skills too. Focus on resistance and try to have over 1000 DA at the end of legendary. Remember that you get str/dex/int bonuses in act 4 to help with stat boosts. Keep some attribute points unspent until you find your final item setup.

There you have it. An awesome build that owns really hard, and demolishes everything on it's path.

If you choose Dream as your secondary mastery, you get +% defensive ability, +% chance to avoid projectiles, +% total speed, resistance reduction and good skill (Distort Reality/ Temporal Rift) to eliminate melee threats. You can trade Trance of Wrath for Trance of Convalesncence if you feel like you are taking too much damage.

Try out one point in Sleep and Enslave Spirit. They can help in some situations. Distortion Wave is another great one point skill to slow down fast monsters, helps agains those nasty machae archers.

Helmet: Visor of the Shadowlord.This is what you need 493 str for. An excellent helmet just about everything you can need. Important secondary resistances, elemental resistance, +1 all skills, +200 DA etc. You can get it in act 4 epic and legendary.

Armbands: Stonebinder's Cuffs.+3 skills, elemental resistance. Enchant with whatever you need, like Pristine Plumage for poison resistance. Farm the three gorgon sisters, or in Minoan Labyrinth. For more info, do a search.

Stave: Scepter of the Liche King of Harrowing.-25% energy cost, 14% health reduction. Dropped by the liches in Wusao Mountain. Very rare. Anubis' Wrath relic with +35% AS completion bonus. Remember that any staff of the Harrowing will do for this build. I found this while going through epic, and went through the rest of the game including legendary, under 400 DPS. Still owning everything.

Secondary Weapon slot: Sapros the Corrupter and Ancile.

I enter boss battles with Phantom Strike to spread -resistances. You can use whatevet you like in secondary slot, or nothing at all.

There you have it. Maxed resists, good DA, +6 skills. Can convert over 2k health with one hit. Typhon, Hydra, all go down under 5 seconds when faced one on one. Dying isn't going to happen unless I close my eyes.

For those who may not know Crate Entertainment was started by one of the developers who worked on Titan Quest and Immortal Throne at Iron Lore. His name is Arthur Bruno and he bought one of the projects that Iron Lore was working on when they went bust. He continued to work on this on his own with a few other people helping out as and when he needed them. Word slowly spread of this new project which was now entitled Grim Dawn, Arthur set up a forum and people started asking if they could make donations to help with funding the work. This was eventually done and then in 2012 a Kickstarter project was started by Crate which proved very successful - they doubled their target figure. This funding enabled the company to hire more people to work on the project. The game went into early access on Steam in 2013 and was fully released on 25th February 2016. An expansion for the game was one of the Kickstarter goals and this expansion entitled Ashes of Malmouth was released on 11th October 2017.

Grim Dawn is Titan Quest's spiritual successor - it uses the TQ engine and has the dual mastery class combo. But it's not a clone of TQ, oh no. Much work has been done on the TQ engine and many additional features give Grim Dawn it's own uniqueness in the world of RPGs. Crafting of items, factions both hostile and friendly, a devotion system to name a few add depth and complexity to the game.

Okay, this is a boasting thread pure and simple. Show off your latest acquisitions all you packrats. Tell us what goodies you've found recently to add to your overflowing collections. Screenshots of the Collector required to verify your claims.

AE version of the Collector which works with TQIT and AE (note - not complete item-wise)